Followers

6/06/2012

IPv6 Certification

The Price is Right: IPv6 Certification Badge for zkneebone Get yours free from Hurricane Electric http://www.he.net/

3/11/2012

Chris and Gorgoroid

The Price is Right:
Chris
Male
Human
27
has a fascination with gothic culture
thinks he's a dark magician but he's really a quack
tries to be cold but he's quite tame
yearns to become otherworldly
prides on his attire
Chris has been involved in gothic culture since he was a teenager. He became popular performing at European festivals primarily in Germany and Holland. While he was on hiatus in the Mediterranean he attends a convention in Istanbul. He sees a belly dancer who gives him the eye while performing. After her show he goes to see her at the fortune telling booth. He feels drawn to her as though he had seen her before. He felt a strong sense of deja vous as he sat down at her behest. He introduced himself to her. "Hi, my name is Chris. I was watching you perform and your act is fantastic. Thanks for inviting me over. Do I know you from somewhere?" he asked.
Name
Gorgoroid

Gender
Androgenous

Age
350

Race
Polymorph Mechanoid

Clan
Byakko

Abilities
Antigravity drive, Electromagnetic forcefield, Polymorph

Weapons
positronic pulse cannon, neutron torpedos

Background History

System error! I cannot follow those orders. Gorgoroid was manufactured on the planet Proceon as a polymorphing mechanoid to serve the Overlords in suppressing the human population. He became aware of a higher conciousness and refused to follow orders and was exiled from the planet. He locked on to a distant signal where he hoped to find a righteous race of beings. He traveled through the void of interstellar space for centuries and grew monomaniacal and self-centered. He engaged his forcefield and plunged through the atmosphere of the new planet and began a campaign of attrition to become lord of the strange world. Will he be destroyed in battle or can he be turned back to the purity of virtue with which he began his mission?

Picture
Character Description
    He has four forms which he can take at will:
  • a floating orb of 6.5 feet in diameter
  • an ogre in bipedal motion at 12 feet in height ^
  • a lion in quadrupedal motion of 9 feet in length
  • an all-terrain motorized trike.

Gorgoroid has an antigravity drive which allows him to fly freely about the atmosphere and even into outer space. He has an electromagnetic forcefield which looks like a silver orb which deflects energy based attacks. However he cannot use his own weapons with the sheild engaged. He has two weapons: a positronic pulse cannon and neutron mortars. The positronic pulse cannon ejects a high speed wave of antimatter which explodes on contact with air resulting in a spray of hellfire in a 30 foot cone. The neutron torpedos launch upward and fall to explode near the ground with concussive force. They have a range of 600 feet and a blast radius of 15 feet.

Ravana and Rokuemon

The Price is Right:
Name: Ravana
Sex: Male
Species: Bengal Tiger
Orientation: Male
Occupation: Personal guard of the Princess
Age: 18
Place: Palace of Nana Sahib, Bithoor, Uttar Pradesh, British East India
Time: early Victorian Age, 1857
Background: The Rao family was deposed by the British East India company in the 1820s however they still retained their title and served as figureheads to help morale of Indians under the yoke. They resided in the beautiful palace of Nana Sahib on a fortified hill in Northern India. The Indian Revolt is raging and the fort is busy training and supplying soldiers to the revolution. The British have become wise to the covert operations of the fortress.
Ravana has been sleeping in the room of the beautiful Princess _____ since she was five years old. During the day while she was at schooling, Ravana was being trained to be her faithful and ruthless personal bodyguard. Ravana is faithful and loyal and will follow the Princess everywhere and she could even ride him. She sometimes talks to him and she swears he's the best listener. He will lay down his life for her. She is unaware that this is the eve of destruction for the Palace as the British advance to lay Siege to the palace.

*Character Name: Rokuemon

Alias:Roku/Six

*Race:tanuki (racoon-dog, shifter)

Occupation: Merchant, teacher

Personality: Rokuemon is a typical raccoon dog (tanuki): greedy, mischievous, exceptionally clever, digs through trash, laughs at things that aren't funny to anyone else. He likes to draw attention to himself by telling jokes and pulling pranks on people.

*Age: 1400

*Gender: Male

Sexual Preference: straight

Marital status: unwed

Height/Weight: 1.38m/85lbs

Eyes/Hair: Brown/Brown

Identifying characteristics: In his natural form, huge tanuki testicles, brown fur, always grinning, black eye patches.

Known special abilities: can disguise himself as an inanimate object, human or another kind of demon; his testicles can be used as an umbrella, a floatation device, a card table, a carpet, a tent, a parachute or anything else his devious little mind can think of, they also bring good fortune in money.

Preferred weapons: his testacles can be used as a blunt weapon but usually he uses his trickery and shifting abilities to demoralize his attacker.

Likes: women, money, sake, music, food, parties, festivals

Dislikes: sour people, people with more money, viciousness, the smell of fish

Known family: Rokuemon had 3 older brothers and two older sisters which is why he is called Six.

*History: Rokuemon was a normal tanuki born in Tayatama and grew up rummaging the town dump with his mother and siblings. One day as they were digging through a pile of rags when Roku found a priceless silk obi that looked like silver. He played with it and tore it to shreds and ate it. It brought him extreme good fortune, long life and great big testacles.

*Picture:

3/08/2012

Character Sheets: Honore and Thully

The Price is Right:
Guttsu no Beruze-ruku Guts! from Berserk
Name: Honoré Chartreuse
Species: Wampaia
Age: 200 (looks forever 24)
Gender: Male
Sexuality: straight
Personality: Honoré is a cold-hearted and driven psychopath. He derives pleasure by seeing others in pain. Like when a friend tried to quit smoking, he started smoking himself just to make it impossible, then he quit. He doesn't let others see him sweat. He loves to take horserides along the ocean shore. He is spiteful, if someone embarasses him or makes him look bad he works hard to get them back times ten.
Background: Honoré was born in a small town of the Alsace where he grew up getting into trouble. He liked to do things like steal money from the church and deface the public institutions. He left for Paris when he was a 15 and found a job as a bouncer at a brothel because he was such a huge kid. Needless to say he grew up quickly and gained a reputation for his quick temper.The work earned him some money but he developed a crush on many of the women who worked there and it was obvious. On his 18th birthday the girls through him a party and as a rite of passage they got him to do some very embarrasing things for them. He vowed to pay them back and kept business out of the brothel until they fired him. But now he has a love-hate thing for women. Whenever he feels he is getting close to a woman now he pushes them away forcefully but regrets it later.
Story:

*Character Name:Thularezin

Alias: Thully

*Race:Elf

Occupation: Bard

Personality: Thularezin is self-assured, assertive, conniving, helpful, boastful, charming, lacksadaisical, unflinching, hyperaware, clever, witty, musical, avaricious and vegetarian.

*Age: 37

*Gender: Male

Sexual Preference: straight

Marital status: unwed

Height/Weight: 1.45/96lbs.

Eyes/Hair: Blue/Blonde

Identifying characteristics: Thularezin is so fair he could be mistaken for female. He has a elven tribal sleeve tattoo on his upper arm. He has a white scar across the right side of his nose. He has a graceful but aggressive gait and poise. His speach is always rhythmic and often rhymes, he is a natural poet.

Known special abilities: Thularezin is such an excellent musician he can enchant most anyone with his songs. He is a master of disguise and acrobatics. He can enchant his arrows with elemental spells. He is really good at climbing trees.

Preferred weapons: He is sharp with a longbow and deadly with his throwing knives.

Likes: Animals, musical instruments, beautiful women, wine, money, horseriding, singing, whittling, camping, travelling.

Dislikes: Whining, capriciousness, jealousy, aristocracy

Known family: only child, parents are living.

*History: Thularezin was born in the hidden elven village of Yilara, constructed high in the treetops of the Easterbaum woods. His father was prominant in the counsel but Thularezin didn't care so much about matters of state. Instead of studying the books his father gave him, could be found working wood statuary or working on a song with his biwa (stringed instrument). One day he performed a concert for the village but the lyrics to one of his songs was so offensive that he was publicly shamed. He refused the punishment, to revoke his words, and left the village rather than face further humiliation and he has since to return.
He found a calling in the human world working as a minstrel. He quickly gained a reputation for his travelling show, he would perform songs, acrobatics, dance and magic. Soon, he was being harkened by noble courts and towns everywhere to perform. On the road he became a seasoned combatant, fending off bandits and creatures of the wild. He became deft with a bow and learned how to throw knifes. He takes special care in whittling his own arrows that he can enchant with fire, ice, earth or lightning.
*Picture: Elf Bard: hosted on Crunchyroll.

2/29/2012

92 Answers About Me on my eighth Leap Day.

The Price Is Free:
92 Answers About Me on my eighth Leap Day.
Full Name: Zakri Kneebone

Age: 33

Birthday: 11/30/1978



Rules: I forge my own path. Heed God above all others. Jesus is my personal Lord and Saviour. Blood is thicker than water. Neighbors before entrepreneurs. Save strong drink for dying men. Let Love to guide me on the path of righteousness. Forgive a man his errors but not atrocity. Cats are cuddly. Why should a creditor take your bed from under you?



WHAT WAS YOUR:



1. Last beverage: Coffee

2. Last phone call: Alexis

3. Last text message:  Alexis

4. Last song: 'You Walk Alone' by Shreya Ghoshal

5. Last time you cried: December?



HAVE YOU EVER:



6. Dated someone twice: Yes

7. Been cheated on: yes

8. Kissed someone & regretted it: Yes

9. Lost someone special: Yes

10. Been depressed: Yes

11. Been drunk and threw up: Yes



LIST THREE FAVORITE COLORS:



12. Cerulean

13. Candy Apple

14. Indigo



SINCE LAST YEAR (2011), HAVE YOU:



15. Made a new friend: Yes

16. Fallen out of love: No

17. Laughed until you cried: No

18. Met someone who changed you: Yes

19. Found out who your true friends were: Yes

20. Found out someone was talking about you: No

21. Kissed anyone on your FB friend's list: Yes



GENERAL:



22. How many people on your FB friends list do you know in real life: 80%

24. Do you have any pets: No

25. Do you want to change your name:  No

26. What did you do for your last birthday: Wishing I was watching The Birthday Massacre but went to Karaoke Kid instead.

27. What time did you wake up today: 8:05am

28. What were you doing at midnight last night: dreaming

29. What's something you can't wait for: Finish my MMO.

30. Last time you saw your mother: Last night.

31. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life: family communication

32. What are you listening to right now: My brother

33. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom?: Poor Ole Tom.

34. What's getting on your nerves right now: My finances

35. Most visited webpage: vampirefreaks

37. Nickname(s): Zak, Ducky, Lego, Dr. Crackenstein, i1abnrk, Vibishana, Rainbow, Zak Crack, Zakaroni and Cheese, Kneeboner, Zak Pack, Doug LaFollette III, Zakky Ramone, Zakk Wilde, Nuklhed

38. Relationship Status: real

39. Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

40. He or She: He

41. Elementary: Franklin Elementary, Randall Elementary, Lincoln Elmentary, Eagle School

42. High School: Verona Area High School

43. College: Herzing Madison, Madison College, UW-Whitewater

44. Hair color: Copper

45. Long or short hair: Medium

46. Height: 5'10"

47. Do you have a crush on someone?: Not irl.

48. What do you like about yourself?: I feel smexy.

50. Tattoos: 1

51. Righty or lefty: Righty



FIRSTS :



52. First surgery: Broken knuckle

53. First piercing: Left ear

54. First best friend: My cousin Shack.

55. First sport you joined: Basketball

56. First vacation: Thomasville, Georgia



RIGHT NOW:



59. Eating: Nothing

60. Drinking: Coffee.

61. I'm about to: Write some story

62. Listening to: My kid stomping around

63. Waiting for: a phone card



YOUR FUTURE :



64. Want kids?: have 1.

65. Get Married?: someday soon, maybe

66. Career?: Code monkey, waitserver, customer service



WHICH IS BETTER :



67. Lips or eyes: Eyes

68. Hugs or kisses: kisses

69. Shorter or taller: taller

70. Older or Younger: younger

71. Romantic or spontaneous: spontaneous

72. Nice stomach or nice arms: nice tits

73. Sensitive or loud: sensitive

74. Hook-up or relationship: relationship

75. Funny or Shy?: Funny



HAVE YOU EVER :



76. Kissed a stranger: Yes

77. Drank hard liquor: Yes

80. Broken someone's heart: Yes

81. Had your own heart broken: Yes

82. Been arrested: Yes

83. Turned someone down: Yes

84. Cried when someone died: Yes



DO YOU BELIEVE IN:



86. Yourself: Yes

87. Miracles: Yes

88. Love at first sight: No

89. Heaven: Yes

90. Santa Claus: No

91. The tooth fairy: No

92. Angels: Yes

2/15/2011

Implications of Dirac's Formula

Once for every Planck's constant of time hbar equals h over 2 pi the entire universe undergoes the big bang. This is the implication of Dirac's theory. That is 9.1 x 10 ^ 35 times per second (roughly) the entire universe undergoes an oscillation phase between matter and non-matter. (More correctly, it is a two-pole oscillation that goes: matter, non-matter, anti-matter, non-anti-matter. And even more correctly it is a 3-pole oscillation.......) Every quanta disappears virtually and then randomly appears simultaneously, or at least to the perspective of a (human, 3D) conscious observer.
Does this mean I can walk through a wall? Why yes, but it is extremely unlikely. A body of matter, or specifically in this case a human body is composed of a vast and unthinkable quantity of quanta. The probability is relative to this quantity that a spontaneous Kt-event may occur (like passing through a wall) for a large body object as described.
Yet it is still a matter of fact that a particular quantum within the body will randomly reappear perhaps a half-universe away, the probability that another random quantum will replace it increases with the mass of the object being observed. That is to say as we "zoom-out" to a larger frame of reference the probability that entirety of the object will "wink" out of existence decreases proportionally. Every particle in the universe experiences this oscillation of coming into being and destruction, it is simply the average of this activity which we experience as a conscious reality. What is important about this phenomenon as conscious observers is not the how or the why but rather the fact that it happens at all. What exists from a certain perspective is not "to be or not to be" but a collection of probabilities of existence in a large enough sample as to outweigh the odds of non-existence.

2/10/2011

Helmet of Agris

Zakri M. Kneebone
Section 1
Object: Helmet of Agris
Origin: Discovered in Agris, Charente, France.
Culture, Period: Celtic, Late Bronze or Early Iron.
Dates: ca. 375-350 BCE.
Museum: Museum of Angouleme (Angouleme, France)


The Helmet of Agris is a full sized helmet fitting to the forehead with a small neck guard. Also attached is a paragnithides, or cheek-guard: its mate is unfortunately undiscovered since the pieces were scattered about by animals. Despite the aesthetic pleasantness the lost piece would contribute, it is considered one of, if not the best Celtic object of art ever recovered in France.
There are three main parts: the timbre1 or stamp made of iron, the panels of bronze with gold leaf and the attachments. The stamp is a very plain kettle of iron, designed to be invisible except for a set of lock-rivets about the great arch to hold the panels in place. Each of the lock-rivets is shaped like a modern thumbscrew and secures one end of each of a pair of semicircular panels. The stamp is quite thin so that it is highly unlikely that the helmet was intended for military duty. At the very top is a rounded, ringed crest reminiscent of the capitol of the queen in a modern chess set. Set into the crest is a broken black wood dowel which probably held some kind of pennant.
The panels are seven in number composing four concentric bands: a top panel and three longer bands made of two panels each, riveted on the sides. The panels are bronze sheet, covered in gold leaf mined from the Central Massif of France which is refined to 99%, an exceptional purity for the time. The sheets are stamped out in low-relief and embossed with linear plant patterns.
The top panel is thematically the most disparate of the four bands, the theme here is comprised of a coral inlay depicting a writhing serpent with the head of a carnivore, perhaps a canine, with horns on the head. This is the only subject which is considered uniquely Celtic.
The remaining three panels form a rhythm of complex alternations. An external alternation is created by the second and fourth (bottom) bands and an internal alternation by the third. The eye is
Helmet of Agris by Zakri Kneebone 2
first drawn to the third panel because it is the only one that is not encrusted with coral and is consequently brighter and lighter in tint and is the finest and most intricately stamped of the bands. Also, it is the tallest of the bands and occupies approximately 30% of the height of the helmet and is centered on the great circumference. The design consists of pairs of symmetrically opposed esses, these pairs forming a sinusoid. There the negative space resembles a rain drop, alternating in vertical inversion and inside this space is a lotus leaf oriented upward or downward likewise tessellating the circumference of the band. Each lotus leaf matches the palmette motif as a pair of palmettes on their sides in a vertical symmetry. A triangular shape is made by the interstitial (a minor, “left-over” section of the plane in a tesselation) with the border and in this space is a small vine, curled about itself in a triskele (a threefold spiral). The borders contain tiny half-oval florets with three points pointing upward on top and downward on bottom.
The second and fourth bands have a reflective resemblance, forming a second rhythm surrounding that of the third band and augmenting it. Palmettes, inverted in the second (upper) band, occupy a corresponding space on those panels. A palmette is a small lotus which most likely is the influence of Greek Classical architecture and also very likely via the Etruscans. Of the bands the second is shorter and likewise the palmettes are inverted and structurally smaller having only five leaves. The palmettes were originally accentuated with a piece of corral fitted to each and every shaped outlined in the panels and each corral is likewise fastened by a rivet adorned with a gilded bronze rivet head conforming to contour. Due to wear about one quarter of the corral remains intact.
The fourth band is thematically identical to the second and is nearly so identical except for vertical orientation a proportionally higher degree of complexity relative to its larger dimensions. The palmettes are seven-leaved and the interstitials are also spiral curly vines centered by triskeles. Likewise, the palmettes are accented with corral and rivets.
Finally, below the panels is a band of colored corral which meets a neck guard at the rear. The
Helmet of Agris by Zakri Kneebone 3
neck-guard is iron, covered in corral and riveted to the kettle. Hanging from the right side of the kettle is a lonesome paranthides, or cheek-guard, made of thin iron rods which are bronzed and gilded. It is an inverted palmette, the largest of all, with elaborately scrolled esses and fine gold wire curls between the larger curls.

Bibliography
Museum of Angouleme online http://www.angouleme.fr/museeba/

Encyclopédie de l'Arbre Celtique online http://encyclopedie.arbre-celtique.com/

Numbered and untitled article, Gomez De Soto, José and Verger, Stephane, originally published in "L'archéologue, 106 (2010) 56-59" halshs-00455391, version 1 - 10 Feb 2010; retrieved from http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/45/53/91/PDF/Agris_l_archeologue.2.pdf

Notes: All of the sources are in French with which I am familiar but am not an expert; I use Google Translate profusely. Since it would be improper and detrimental to translate the proper French names of my resources, I feel the apostrophes therein are absolutely necessary. Precise measurements and weights are not available anywhere, but the nice folks at the Museum of Angouleme are sending me a pamphlet which has not arrived.

1 Can be translated as stamp or kettle: Google translate. Since kettle is more visual I relate the terms together.

2/09/2011

Correspondance Francais

Bonjour,

Merci pour votre message. Nous pouvons vous envoyer la publication sur le casque, mais seulement par la poste, nous n'avons pas de version numérique. Pouvez-vous me donner votre adresse et nous vous l'enverrons cette semaine. Si jamais vous aviez besoin d'informations rapidement sur le casque, vous pouvez contacter notre archéologue au musée : Jean-François Tournepiche :


Merci et bonnes recherches.
Cordialement

Lionel Markus
Responsable du service des publics
Le Musée d'Angoulême
1, rue Friedland
16000 Angoulême
05.45.95.07.69

"Pour réduire notre empreinte écologique, merci de n'imprimer que l'indispensable, et d'utiliser le recto-verso autant que possible"


>>> my email removed 01/02/2011 05:57 >>>

Bonjour Monsieur,
S'il vous plaît pardonnez-moi si mon français est terne, mais je sais
seulement un peu. J'espère que cette lettre vous trouvera en bonne
santé.
Mon nom est Zakri Kneebone et je suis étudiant à l'Université de
Wisconsin-Whitewater et je suis avec vous concernant le casque d'Agris
parce que j'écris un texte formel descriptif. J'espérais que vous
pourriez me dire des propos de la pièce. Je sais que certains
renseignements de base sur ça où il a été exhumé et les matériaux
utilisés pour rendre le casque.
Il ya quelques faits dont je suis curieux, mais ne peut pas trouver pour
moi-même. Plus précisément, la mesure et la masse de l'objet et quelles
que soient les données statistiques, vous pouvez trouver des notables.
Peut-être vous avez une feuille de la brochure ou des données qui vous
pouvez me l'envoyer par voie électronique, s'il vous plaît.
Je suis très reconnaissant de votre temps et d'énergie, monsieur.
Cordialement, votre ami à travers l'étang,
Zakri Kneebone.

1/24/2011

I'm so weird.

Forgive me but I must have touch to fall in love.
The love, a gorge, while I zumba by its precipice.
But to see it is a chat, a virtue gain to love.
I wrote you a thousand times. Mon petite dulce.
La danse sacrée des sucrés dix-sept douce.

A secret night mass in the misty heart of a black forest
Under the prismatic diffusion of the light of the Moon
With a bucket full of stolen booze and bisuits and brownies
And a bubble-gum machine black spider ring of recycled polyethylene.
A backpack full of books no one else will ever be allowed to read.

A dress of Hot Topic velvet,
A leather strung pentacle medallion of sterling.
Curly red hair scented freesia,
And green, earth elemental green eyes.
A spirit full of wolf: teeth enlarged that pang for blood.

A kiss to me:
The fat of my neck.
"Oh, the dirty pleasure of thy love bite."
I grasp you passionately.

We settle down and gaze up at the Brigid Oak Moon
Describing all manner of pleasures and pain
Wafting like the scent of cherry pie or smoke
Upon the mana whispering in the trees in tip-tops,
and in the golden sparks of faerie dust
as they whip about the periphery of sight
and dash through inter-dimensional port holes.

A string that binds.
Really, just a visual aid, but
Ye to me it ties forever.
I can still feel you.
My heart still seeks you.
Maybe I will never truly move on.
I will certainly never replace you in my mind.
But I feel guilty.
I can love again, I know it.
But this shadow of yesterday dimmer is cast.
Makes me rush to love.
I may have loved a lifetimes worth already.
But that sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy:
I simply must not believe it.

Yes I miss that bond.
I will never connect with anyone in quite the same way.
But I will love truly again.
This I believe.
But some very good years are behind me.
Seventeen was almost a lifetime ago.
I honor thee. You want me to move forward.
I can feel this in my bones.
You want me to find a worthy lover,
And while there are scores of candidates
A good fit is very rare indeed for me.

1/07/2011

Methods for enumerating dimensional intersections

The 51st crease of the 6th to 9th dimensional vector.
Assuming there are 10 dimensions and we are assuming direct vector connection
between the 6th and 9th dimensions, as an edge of a 10-dimensional
hypercubic manifold, there are 10 minus 2 (the number of components in the
selected vector) factorial (for all permutations of intersection with
other 8 remaining dimensions by iterating through binary selection yeilds
the 51st datum of 8! items) 51 of 40320 with a lower bound of 0. 0 means
no intersections. The 51st binary permutation of the set {1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 7, 8, 10}. By choosing binary modality we get the enumeration 110011
or 32+16+3+1=51. The right-most binary numeral corresponds to the left-most
element of the set in one-to-one correspondance an intersection results in
the Turing subset {1, 2, 5, 7}.
The second method is iterative order, that is, to take all possible
single member sets (8 of them). Then 51-8=43. Then take all possible two
member sets which is 8*7 or 56. Since 43<56 therefore the 43rd member of
the set of two dimensional intersections, a set of sets: {{1, 2}, {1, 3},
..., {8,10}}. So the iterative answer is another Turing method:
1 {1,2}
2 {1,3}
3 {1,4}
4 {1,5}
5 {1,7}
6 {1,8}
7 {1,10}
This gets us to number eight so we can subtract n-1 from 43 until we get
a remainder and a quotient: 43-8=35, 35-7=28, 28-6=22, 22-5=16, 16-4=12,
12-3=9, 9-2=7, 7-1=6. So we result with the two-dimensional where the
members are the number of operations, the 8th, and the remainder, the 6
sixth. The result equals {A(6), A(8)} or {7, 10}. The 51st crease is an
intersection of the 6th, 7th, 8th and 10th dimensions.

1/06/2011

Master P's Make Crack Like This: Perspective

Shout out to Master P with his tru ta da gizzame fa rizza splita chedda cheesey frito lay hopped up on government approved vitamin R, I have no blame but my own and I like where I'm at. Last semester I took these classes and I got two C's and two D's, but I swear to you I feel like a brand new man. I mean I think I actually studied so hard on those channels that my research was deep to the point where I was too busy studying hard copy data to work on the actual project. Any teacher will tell you that I did tons of research and developement outside of the classroom. If you read my posts from this blog you know that I have some pretty deep understandings of the universe. I am far better with al-litter-ation than rime, but so long my Soldiers, I've wept for your harder choice, to live closer to the gun. I am sorry but I knew and still feel that I have done far better work here teaching kids of all ages how to use the internet in Wisconsin. I am known as the father to my own style like Flava had flava like Milky Cereal, Baby. I'm all criss-cross and the boss and when the budget gets passed I hope cigarette taxes go down because I down here doing bitch work for football players and politians and everyone can clearly see why I'm different. I'm a buddhist in a christian black neighborhood and I was neither asian nor black. Over the course of ten years or so in the south side of Madison was changed from Namio's and Burr Oaks Bowl into what is now Harambee: even the old Open Pantry which was also a Sinclair and now contains a cellular shop.
I have been a programmer since I was born, I think. I remember setting digital watches for my stepdad Jim and his white truck driver friend Jimbo and my white Afro-crested Zappa freak uncle Art all worked together at the Madison Mushroom Plant on Baldwin Street. I was 4 years old. I think over by Madison Metro but there were a lot more trees and smaller row houses then, where now, after the plant closed in 86?, the nearest job to be found is the business incubator over by those incredible emu sculptures on the bike path.
The one that starts on the Wilson-Williamson spur and goes all the way out to an old haunt of mine. Once upon a time I was so determined to make my own way that I slept under the railroad bridge where it ducks under Aberg Ave, State 20, and pledge to spill my blood for the loss of my friend Malinda and a did indeed perform some kind of magic show with a rose that I had spray painted black as if to say, wherever you are, I shall morn for you, Lady.
Here I stay such a determined young man destined for some info-hack shrine of destiny. Man ever since eight years old I've had a computer keyboard, a music play button and a screen on button. I loved watching A-Team and Knight Rider but the one show that really creeped me out was Fall Guy.
I found my groove when I was 15 years old and I got to program some Chipmunk Basic, and within 6 weeks the instructor, George, came over and asked to see me after class. He invited me to join the AP Programming class, the second semester focused on learning the event-based programming techniques of Visual Basic 4.0. These days I like JSP, Java, PHP, Javascript, YAML, Perl, MS-DOS, Ubuntu, Debian Linux like Knoppix (knopper.de/). I love toying with my Hex-Editor. I remember complex save-game hashing that I decoded for use in the Diablo game. I've studyed 3D model-making and haiku and Nichiren Shoshu and Robert Oppenheimer and Subramanian Chandrasekar (see wikipedia:"neutrino stars", "quasars", "pulsars", "neutrons", "particle density", "dark matter", "event horizon", "heavy water").
I listen to Banghara-hip-hop from London, and pentacle-inverting metal from norway, but I sure wish they could express their sorrows in a more constructive arena. I just want use to pass out the meteor belt already. Cut it up into like 80 microparsecs between Mars and Jupiter, clearance must be prepared if Jupiter goes. Somehow we all seem to be playing a game with the very make up of the Earth, A smattering of souls to inhabit a precise location in the solar system. We must have access to the technology to robotically grab a chunk of iron off the planet Mars, or a chunk of a lake of 99% Ethyl Alcohol from a vent on Ganymede. I wonder how that will taste in 40 years from now. We've got an interplanetary mission to fulfill. Why? Because we can and we all need more guys like me who can think off the wall like this.
So with no further ado is my impression:
make crack like this is the song, but you won't be gettin' no money if yo shit be cooked wrong. overcook yo dope it might come out brown but green ya betta get clean outta town. I'm just tryin' ta put *****z in the game and tell ya howta..(powda) make crack from cocaine...,
Me, a young man. in the next door moved some gun-toting thugs from the R. South 74s ya heard, somethin' like that, and a cousin in St. Louis or 36s but I know the pain of the lost loved ones in the 80s and 90s. Let's all say a prayer and hope we have better days ahead of us. But let us observe the post-modern custom of recycling. Plant what is sowed. We must not forget to make it grow well. Preservation of newly discovered species should be at an incredible care since we all depend on doing more with less on this planet. We all should get along and respect eachother.
Ok, finally,
Make crack like this...X3
crack
for music
i mean dope tapes
i mean this is how we would make it
make crack like this

Ghetto Dope
Thank you dope fiends for your support.
I mean real niggas.
That a make a dolla outta 15 cent
Ain't gotta job but a rock and pay the rent.
But nowdays I be too smart for the feds.
Overcook your dope it might turn out brown.
You get the baking soda, I gots the d.
Now your cocaine powder is crack and I hope you're strapped cause you might get jacked.
I had it all in to powder but it aint no thang
We some true Gs
If ain't about money then it ain't about me.
Seventeen a couple o.z.'s a triple beam.
Make crack like this.
Never let a nigga front you no dizzope
Show muthafuckas you bout it bout it
Never talk on the phone in your house
The next time you meet me you better have 20 ,G

One always deal with the nigga with the whitest snow.
Two don't buy from nobody that you know
Three get you to kitchen where the stove be
You get the baking soda
I gots da D

12/16/2010

Preview of Fast Five; XXX rant

Hey, mister director of XXX who went with someone else for the second movie. Guess what, Vin Diesel has another multi-movie deal. Your series is wack now. I watched half a movie without Vin. And I even like Ice Cube but he's not a super hero in a Viper he should have a six-fo with fo-fo and sixteen. Now he's doin' Christmas movies cause of yo ass. Bond did that shwag in a 68 Maserati what's wrong with a Galaxy anyway?

12/02/2010

Self-Reliance and Mutual Aid

Self-reliance and mutual aid.

Thoreau was a transcendentalist born in 1817. Transcendentalism is a belief in a soul, an infinite link to the universe that is based on intuition. A gut feeling is the best guide to living happily and wholesomely. Thoreau is most famous for two of his long essays: Civil Disobedience and Walden. These works is one of the key philosophical building blocks of the free thinking society we enjoy today in America and indeed around the world. He encouraged peaceful means of protest by refusing to obey the laws that are contrary to proper morals. He entertained that there are evil laws which are meant only to fleece the public and restrict freedom. Thoreau is also attributed to conceiving many of the core ideas surrounding the anarchist movement lasting from after the Civil War and becoming democratically impotent by the end of World War I. Famous figures from this time included Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin and Emma Goldman.
Anarchism is a belief that the best government is none at all. Each person is left to their own devices to fend for themselves. Anarchists believe in an innate goodness of humans, that we are all born in our most perfect state. Civilization is oppressive and creates a class system. The theory postulates that utter repulsion of a government will create a utopia of free expression. I believe that civilization necessarily implies government.
To this end Kropotkin wrote a treatise on evolution entitled, "Mutual Aid". He elucidates a recurring theme throughout the essay. It begins with the colonies of ants and sequentially introduces more highly complex organisms, finally concluding with human cities. He contends that animals which band together increase the success of rearing young by sharing responsibility. In other essays he then contends that laws are unnecessary, because they serve no purpose. They serve no purpose because it is the nature of humans by their evolution to be kind and sharing to one another. The class system would dismantle itself if humans were kinder to eachother. Laws maintain the class system and so they must be abolished.

I do not agree with the Nihilist contention that a property of an object should in all cases be elevated to consideration as being object of itself. Instead, I offer that there are objects, which are separate from actions. There are objects which perform actions and it is the 'how' of the relationship between objects and the respective actions which the idea of these properties relate. When X does Y it is by the property Z of object X that action Y is possible from X. It is by the degree of Z, positive, nil, or negative that we know the quality and quantity of Y-effect produced by X.
A primary theme in Thoreau's work is responsibility. Responsibility is reaction to duties. To some degree a person is responsible to others through duty to react to challenges of belonging to a community. In a community, respect depends to a great extent upon responsibility. Without community, as when a man lives far from civilization, responsibility is to survival of the one man himself. It is in the spirit of responsibility that Thoreau proffers the essence of civil disobedience. A responsible individual will disobey the law when it is his moral obligation to do so. The moral obligation to disobey occurs when a law is unjust.
Honor and duty are part of a legacy which extends beyond mortality. Our work can be
useful to others posthumously. A legacy is an attribute which is very different in the context of men as humans from men as animals because evolution is not concerned with honor. Thoreau's work is more relevant to the human experience because it addresses issues more specific to the human experience. Animals do not leave a legacy as do humans. There are myths and legends of animals and there are even animal celebrities. Though, even these examples are really a fiction created by some anonymous human narration.
There is very little in these essays about love and friendship so I will inject a poem I wrote in 2004 called “But to Be a Better Friend.”
But to Be a Better Friend
She said she's so sultry
Why whisper wanton wailings?
Open up Oppenheimer
No offense no confidence
My confidante
My sycophant
My reeling irrelevant

Mind spinning
Synchronistically
Two possibities
One rogue singularity
Love is love's fate
Love is love's fault
Love is love's fake
Love is due result

I wonder will I
Be deposed of will I
Hold my soul high
Holed my sole high

Well does she expect me
To stick around lovesick
With my heart broke
And breaking more fragile
Everyday she wants friendship
But to be a better friend
I would be a lover-friend

The part of me that stays behind when I fly
Feels the way I do about you
Does it knot when I'm crying I'm dying?
Dying for what I believe in, it's you and I

To protect her interests
Divested from my friend
To rend her gently to
My center of being
Freeing her from having to be
Someone she doesn't want to be
If she wants to be with me?

If you were shy I would take it on high
To save you drowning and towel to dry
Yield the pill I will adroitly poison deny
Though your beautiful lips don't try

My poem explicitly addresses the quandary of the difference between love and friendship. I eventually engaged to the subject of the poem, but I could not convince her to marry me despite years of faithfulness. To clarify the boundary between friendship and love. I apposite the title proposition of a song by gangsta rap group TRU who went on individually to sell over 25 million albums: “Would you take a bullet for your homie? I got trust up in myself 'cause most of these fools are living phoney.”
When I met Karen she was a strumpet, a young woman who ran away from her foster family to live with her biological family when she was 17. She was beautiful, confused and homeless. I was homeless, too, but I was ambitious at 25 and in a decent college, but also homeless. When we got together we were really good when it was good and really bad when it was not good. It was interesting enough to keep us together. When she had Zach's baby, (notice the spelling, my name is Zak) my grandmother kicked us out. It was my friend, Cosmo who gave us and Jonathan a place to stay.
There is a boundary between love and friendship that is certainly fuzzy in practical application. I mean, who honestly can love someone without making concessions? A melding of two realities occurs where the two parts cannot be said to be different, in feeling. When one party is in pain, someway, even distantly, the other is aware of pain. When one is wandering in search of the other, the other is somehow alert to this and wends their way to the first. There is some knowledge of eachother which seems to occur preternaturally. There is some sense of having been lovers in a past-life or having some predetermined meaning in the relationship.
Predetermination is a feeling of destiny or divine intervention or fate. Preternatural refers to sensations attributed to be outside of the time-space of one's sensational experience. There may be some existential device upon which this occurs. It could be the electron knowledge of our brains which, in expectation, derive the whereabouts of electrons in another mind through some quantum mechanical fealty of spiritual cross-linkage. It could just as well be neutrinos or tachyons, but there are properties of quantum specie which betray the willful observer and whereupon the expectation of the observer is found. There is some vehicle of which humankind has been scientifically unable to define and yet we wreck the world in order to make our material desires known by a more efficient technology.
As humans, we want other people to know directly of what we are feeling and yet the mass of men deny the form of intimacy known as a meeting of the minds, perhaps I do not use this term in the traditional sense. What I mean by a 'meeting of the minds' is an experience which is indistinguishable from internal dialogue but so closely resembles a 'sixth sense' of objective dialogue, as to be obfuscated as separate properties of a common phenomenon. The Atharva Veda relates this phenomenon as being “like hairs on the back of the Brahma bull”, so these ideas are hardly groundbreaking except to grasp at the concretion of modern physics as a possible cohesion of metaphysical theory.
What all this means in regard to the topic. Kropotkin's ideas of Darwinism can be used to defeat itself. There are numerous species which are extremely abundant which are solitary. It doesn't explain, regardless of special colonialism, the cannibalism of some species. Even in the ant which so much as becomes a foundation of his line of reasoning, will cannibalize the genetically defective members to enhance the strong. As a general rule, mutual aid among successful species is notable but also exceptional. His line of reasoning relies upon suspension of disbelief, the melodrama of special circumstances and the fallacy of emotional attribution. The fallacy of emotional attribution is like the woman who says, “Where O where did my dog get her personality?!?!” It is false attribution of human emotions to animals which is really a reflection of the observer's subconscious desires. A person cannot be a non-human, therefore a personality is an attribute of humans only.
People are intricately connected together. From an evolutionary standpoint having people dedicated to caring for children is a boon. Self-reliance takes on a different meaning once a person has young to raise. As a bachelor I only had myself to look after, now I must rear my child. My survival is contingent on protecting my child as well as protecting my capacity to have more children. My attention is divided between the relative certainty of the conceived and the yet-to-be. My strongest Malthusian strength is not raising children so I leave that to others by virtue of risk management. (If the legal hurdles of my new show “Survivor: Family Edition” were negligible the role of child supervisor would be highly sought, I presume.)
People naturally fall into social roles, some are agitators like Thoreau. There is some preternatural emotions which draw people together. There are attributed emotions in animals. Some of our social roles are analogous to colonial behavior in animals. Whether spirit or evolution have a causal relationship to society is vague, though symbolic relationship is evidently common. A “lone wolf” I therefore contend is filling a social role, a view of self in relation to others. A continuance of the boundary of the egoist self contrasting with the collectivist society.

11/30/2010

The Five Pointed Blessing

May God bless every stone you walk upon. May God bless every stone you throw.
May God bless every fire that heats you. May God bless every heated fire with wisdom.
May God bless every river to bring you home. May God bless your ideas to flow like a river.
May God bless every breath you breathe to be wind in your sails. May all wind blow you true.
May God bless your spirit. May your spirit be richer than gold.

My favorite trip (katakana)

The Price is Right:
ザクリ ニーボーン
わたしのトリップだいすきをいきました。
わたしは じゅうくさい でした、メキシコに とても だいたのしかったです トリップをいきましたよ。 はじめて ひこうくに のりました。 わたしのホテルは となりのうみべ でした。 ピンク と おおきかったです。 てんきは いつも あつかったです、 でも かぜは よかったです。 わたしのへやは ちいさかったです と やさしかったです。 だれは とうぎゅう を みました。 ダウンタウンに かいもの を いきました。 メダルのシルバー と ひまきのキュバ を かいました。 うみに ふね を いきました。 じょうだまのカナダ を あいました。 わたしは メキシコ また を りょこいますから。

The most fun trip I ever took was a trip to Mexico when I was 19. I rode a plane for the first time. The hotel was on the beach. It was huge and pink. The weather was always hot but there was a nice breeze from the sea. Our room was small but comfortable. While there, I went to see a bull-fight. I went downtown to shop. I bought a silver medallion and Cuban cigars. I met a beautiful woman from Canada. I went out to sea on a boat. I will possibly to travel to Mexico again.

11/14/2010

On Descartes' First and Third Meditations


  1. Existence of Self
    1. Define Rationalism
      1. Rationalism is the use of reason to ascertain knowledge.


    2. Define Empiricism
      1. Empiricism is the use of senses and measurement to ascertain knowledge.


    3. Descartes' view of the self
      1. Descartes believed that thinking logically necessitates a thing which is doing the thinking. “Cogito ergo sum”, is the crux of his argument regarding the existence of self which is a latin phrase roughly equivalent to: “I think therefore I am.”
        1. Arguments: To be able to consider my non-existence, I must necessarily exist. To be deceived, I must exist. Thought and existence are dependent provident of eachother. He then claims “I am the thing that is thinking.” This is intended to prove existence of self.



    4. Hume's arguments
      1. Hume differentiated between an idea and an impression. An impression is an inexact copy of an object stimulating the senses. An idea as related by Hume means an arbitrary unit of thought. An impression is formed by abstracting ideas from a stimulus (what he refered to as esse.) This abstraction in other words is the imperfect copying in action. He tries turning the cogito on it's head, so to speak, by asserting that all experience lies within the mind rather than a substratum. Substratum are the words represented by an idea (or, alternatively: representing an idea). Hume refers to “frames”, or specific points of time. Each passing moment is one of these frames and each frame is at least a little different from all the others in a person's life.


    5. Kant's critique of Hume
      1. Transcendental Argument:
        1. The transcendental argument of Kant and others is similar to the cogito, he states that knowledge presupposes the existence of God: If there were no God, then there could be no knowledge. There is knowledge. Therefore God exists. There is very little difference in the essences of the transcendental argument and the cogito. In fact, the transcendental argument strengthens the cogito.

    6. Soundness of Hume
      1. The use of 'framing' is a valid argument. However, I view impressions as a subset of ideas. A refutation of a subset does not refute the whole set. I agree with Descartes that all ideas are affected by judgement. I also agree with Hume that that an idea has a name does not give it a factual basis.

      2. He does not consider time as a continuum. This is evident in quantum theory, a model of physics. Specifically, the Planck constant which proves mathematically there exists a size so small that it is physically equivalent to zero size. And partly derived from this is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which proves mathematically that objects at such a small magnitude can have an undefined state where it is simultaneously in multiple states such as radioactivity. I think that Hume would reject my argument because he stated that numbers are to him an invalid proof of existence.




  2. Does God exist?
    1. Descartes' Ontological Argument
      1. What I perceive clearly and distinctly must be true.

      2. What I experience through senses are ideas of material objects themselves.

      3. Judgement is driven by impulse and impulse is frequently inaccurate, so judgement is an imperfect faculty of the mind.

      4. I am not perfect.

      5. What I am calling God is the perfect cause of all things.
        1. The more I give my attention to a thing, the less it seems likely to be internal.

        2. An effect cannot be more perfect than it's cause.
          1. Perfection is a positive quality to its highest degree.


        3. That I make false judgements proves there is something more true than my idea that is the cause of my idea. This I call substance.

        4. There are two types of things that exist.
          1. Things that think: minds.

          2. Things that have substance: bodies.

        5. If I were the cause of myself I would be perfect.

        6. If I were God I would know myself to be God.

        7. The fact that I doubt myself is an imperfection.

        8. I must have been caused by some thing more perfect than myself.

        9. The thing that is the cause of all is all-perfect.

        10. God is a thing that exists in substance.



10/31/2010

Vibishana

The Price is Right:
Username:i1abnrk
Name: Vibishana
Race: Rakshasa
Age: 300 (looks 30)
Gender: male
Position: magic teacher

Personality: Vibishana is very even-tempered and coolheaded. He
projects a dignity that is slightly bourgoisie. He is happy to
have so many bright students to carry on the legacy
Weapon: his natural weapons, enormous sharp claws and teeth;
the rakshasa tradition of archery was taught to him from the age
he learned to play hopscotch, he has a soulbound magic bow
that appears when he says the magic word.

Powers: Shape-shifting, celerity, prismatic magic, magic movie

Bio: Vibishana is a rakshasa, which is an ancient race of
blood-thirsty cat demons from the land of Lanka. When he was 12
he chose to leave his jungle home to earn an education to the
mainland. He often entertains at parties with his magic light
shows and teaches class with his magic movie spell. His immensity
forces him to duck under doorways all over campus. His favorite
form for shapeshifting is a lion, one of his two natural forms
beside the upright humanoid form he goes about his daily routine
in.

** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**


Have you invited your Buddies: yes
Have you uploaded 5 Pictures:

approved

School Sign Up

Username: i1abnrk
Name: Vibishana
Age: 300
Gender: Male
Student or Teacher: Teacher
School Year: Masters Degree in Cosmology from Sacred Forest Polytechnic Institute, 120 years ago.
School House: Cross Academy, Room 205; Office in Magic Dept.
Have you invited your Buddies: Y
Have you uploaded 5 Pictures: Y?



approved

10/07/2010

Globalization

Globalization is a trend toward unification of the world economies. Two pros discussed in the chapter are Transnational Advocacy Networks (TANs) and merchandise trade. Two cons are cultural amalgamation and the per capita gap. Communications and transportation have facilitated the advancement of globalization.

In the last 150 years the capacity and ease of communications and transportation have, to use an idiom, made the world a smaller place. In the early 19th century a message or package from Boston to Beijing (then known as Peking) would take many, many months. Keeping in mind there were no good harbors on the West Coast, the package would go by ship around the Tierra del Fuego. And then, across the Pacific and then north along Australasia and finally through the South China Sea and Sea of Japan. Today ordinary citizens fly and send packages likewise in a matter of hours and days. Communications are now facilitated by the internet and satellite communications with a latency of about 800 miliseconds to just about anywhere in the world. (Zhang, et. al, 1997)The shattering speed of these new technologies have created a framework for improved merchandise trade and Transnational Advocacy Networks.

Anyone can join a TAN on Facebook or begin a trade relationship with someone in the Czech Republic, for instances. Last night I was looking for a platform for my mobile app and I came across a company in the Czech Republic that already makes exactly what I need. I sent them an email about a liscensing arrangement. Likewise, I joined the Facebook group for Doctors Without Borders a week ago. It was the first I had heard about the free trade agreement between the EEC and India and how it was going to impact the prices of the AIDS medicine they ship to Africa. I shared the article with my friends.

This is an effect of the per-capita disparity of EDCs and LDCs. If the large multinational pharmaceutical corporations in Europe made their medicines more affordable (to LDCs especially,) then Doctors Without Borders would not be buying black-market drugs from India. These drugs are unaffordable in Africa to families who make dollars a day.

When I was in Mexico the poolboy at the hotel offered me $50 for the shirt off my back. I paid $30 for it out-of-season and he would have paid $100 for the same brand in the store. Cultural amalgamation is Tommy Hilfiger in Mexico. It is McWorld, as the text calls it.

External links

Satellite Communications in the Global Internet: Issues, Pitfalls, and Potential. Yongguang Zhang, Dante De Lucia, Bo Ryu, Son K. Dao. Hughes Research Laboratories, USA. Retrieved from www.isoc.org/inet97/proceedings/F5/F5_1.HTM

Today's World Governments

The two major types of government in the world today are authoritarian and democratic. Authoritarian governments typically view the population as subjects, whereas the democratic governments tend to view the population as citizens.

Communism is the most popular modern form of authoriatarian government. Modern examples are predominantly the Maoist states of East Asia: China, Myanmar and North Korea, et al. And also, the single-party states of Central Asia: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, et. al. The monarchical form of government is still common in middle eastern countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. as well as the small independant city-states of Europe like Monaco and Leichtenstein.

All of the G-20 states are democracies, except for China and Saudi Arabia. China is evolving into a capitalist-communist composite state. (Hsu, 2007) Saudi Arabia is a monarchy. The remainder of the world's communist states nor of the Middle Eastern monarchies are not considered EDCs. The UAE could be considered an NIC.

External references

Hsu, Robert C. (October 1, 2007). The political economy of guidance planning in Post-Mao China. Review of World Economics.

9/26/2010

On Apology

Notes on Plato's Apology
by Zakri Kneebone
Intro to Philosophy, Fall '10, MW 3:15pm


Socrates is speaking at his trial and facing his accusers who he claims have accused him on false pretenses. There is very little grounds to ascertain whether indeed his claim is true because nothing is directly quoted of the plaintiffs. (Linder 2002 states that there is no known record of the plaintiffs' arguments.) However he makes valid arguments to nullify the charges against him.
Socrates stands accused of heresy, that is to say, speaking against the gods of Athens. He claims that his accusers are corrupt and malicious. He says his philosophy was a duty to the gods as he was told there was no one wiser than he by the Oracle. He decided therefore he must seek out and find someone who was wiser than he and it was on this quest that he insulted people of wealth and renown and it is for this he was being persecuted.
Socrates was also accused of teaching his heretical ways to others. He answered this charge by saying that he took no money and thus he could not be considered a teacher. The people who did follow him were doing so of their own volition. They would harass those whom he chastised. In fact, though his followers forged two brutal and attritious coup d'etats that are considered anti-democratic. However, Socrates pointed to his resistance of the Thirty Tyrants at the trial as evidence in his favor. (Linder, 2002)
Here I will diagram Socrates' argument. The legend is as follows: Corruption of the accusers (1), Duty to the Oracle (2), He did not teach (3), Resistance to wrong-doing (4) and finally, Conclusion of innocence (5). Points 2, 3 and 4 converge to tout his virtue, while point 1 attacks the virtue of the plaintiffs.



Bibliography

The Trial of Socrates by Douglas O. Linder, J.D., Professor of Law, UMKC School of Law, 2002. Self-published on www.umkc.edu as part of his Famous Trials series, retrieved on September 26, 2010 from http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/socrates/socratesaccount.html

9/25/2010

Nationalism

Nationalism is a sense of belonging to a physical nation state. It is in this spirit that patriotism is born. Nationalism has had some dangerous consequences because it is commonly used as propaganda during war time. However it is also used to bring communities together to help each other like when there is a pressing natural disaster. However it is also a sense of Nationalism in exceptionalism, which can prevent people from helping people who don't conform to ones view of national identity. Nationalism seems to be an outdated concept as the nations are trending to economic codependancy though on the territory side they are trending to fragmentation. It seems inevitable for personal success in business to break through such invisible barriers as national borders in order to create a world better than the sum of its parts.

9/17/2010

Westernization

Westernization
Zakri Kneebone Sep 18, 2010 1:56 AM

The current world system is one of Westernization. This term refers to the fact that the most powerful "first-world states" are concentrated in North America and Western Europe, politically known as the West. The general traits of these states are industrialized and democratic. The West assists other states to develop economically and has preference to help states with preference to states which have adopted western values. Some states believe this is a continuation of imperialism. (Mugabe, 2008; Morales, 2009)

Imperialism was a policy by Western countries beginning in the Renaissance and continuing through the Industrial Revolution which was a sustained effort at forceful colonization and requisition of natural and human resouces. (Rourke, p.42) This was followed by the gradual formation of human rights pioneered by Britain and the US through the 19th and 20th centuries. It was this budding ideal of equality and balance of power which met head on with imperialism in the two world wars.

In the interest of equality and the prevention of future world wars that the League of Nations and later the UN were created. However the competition between capitalism and democracy with socialism, communism and fascism which became the Cold War. This ultimately lead to invasion of Eastern Asia by the US and Western Europe in the second half of the 20th century which the book calls containment doctrine. (Rourke, p. 46)

The last 20 years has been marked by US-led NATO invasions into the Middle East to prevent atrocities such as to guard Isreal from Islamic jihadism and to prevent nuclear proliferation. (Rourke, pg. 49)

Independant references:

(Amanpour Interviews Mugabe, CNN, 2008) Retrieved from YouTube 8/18/2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svXCf6W_Kfo

(Evo Morales, Copenhagen Conference, 2009) Reproduced and translated by Democracy Now!, 2009; Retrieved from YouTube 8/18/2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhOMWEDiKvw

9/09/2010

My Role In World Politics Comes From My Origin

I feel my role in world politics is one of tolerence, peaceful resistance, compassion and financial support through charity. I grew up in Madison and I was born a Nichiren Shoshu buddhist. When I was young my mother encouraged me to explore exogenous cultures and I myself grew up in a bi-racial family.
Madison is the quintessential American melting pot. (Antonio Puglieli, 2009) People from every part of the globe wind up there and stay because of the tolerance of the ruling political body there. While I was a youth, the neighboorhood I lived in changed from being a white neighboorhood with blacks to a mostly black neighboorhood.
When I was growing up, most of my friends were of a different race and religeon. From this background I feel I have a responsibility to promote religeous and racial tolerance. What then is my vehicle? Common sense dictates I should use my strengths to obtain my ends. I am in the MCS (Management Computer Systems) program because I have always had a fascination with computers and thus, in and of itself a comprehension of computer programming has been the result of my childhood obsession.
Like many programmers I have become involved the open source community. By becoming involved in the open source community I have met many international programmers. And the goal of the open source initiative is to make free software by and for the world. (Open Source Initiative, 2010) My vehicle therefore is to write free, open source software to unite with international programmers and then use the donations to my projects to raise money for conforming Non-governmental charitable organizations.

3/01/2010

My Stew

In concert. In swell.
The caring chill it's confusing but
When one holds someone dear
They tend toward dependance
Toward they tend to taking advantage
To taking for granted ward they tend
Ward the bell, the ringer, the shonen
The signal blasts out for
The kotsu, the nijishin
When the bell-warden sleeps
The city, does it disintegrate?
Order requires one soldier
Above all combustible
When powerful change must ensue
Then perhaps it's time to rusticate
To dwell in the the mind in a torchlit cave
On a dew-dripping fortitudinal mount
Half-down where the nightingales's melody
Compliments the spatter of condensation off the stalactites
And albino arthropodae actuate averse of the alien ambient heat.

Give him lots of kisses for me she said
Like kisses for chocolate
Like chocolate kisses
Like chocolate exchanged in a kiss
The dripping of stalactites
The chirp of a defensive starling or piper
The majestic fuzzy pile of the blanket I sit upon
Near the spine of the island

Now it's time for lunch
In the sunlight the noontime sun
Has excited vapor effervescing warmth
Like a vast transgalactic empire
Colonizing the Magellenic Clouds
Like dark matter in the Horsehead Nebula
A steamy cascade ineffably lifts off the treeline

Chamomile sprigs and crabapple twigs
Bear flowers and wild onion roots
And lichen makes a stew,
Sparse but bitterly medicinal.

The city glows brighter
My beard has grown gray
But the bitterness of my stew
Is yet stark and fresh.

Since then
But with the fire wrought
I stay warm
In an impression
I lay calmly and watch as the smoke clears.